Sydney Ice Dogs
The '''Sydney Ice Dogs are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Australian Ice Hockey League. The team plays its home games at the Liverpool Catholic Club’s ice rink in New South Wales, a suburb of south-western Sydney. History The Ice Dogs (along with the Melbourne Ice and Newcastle North Stars) were part of a three-team expansion to the AIHL in 2002, joining the original teams Adelaide Avalanche (who disbanded in 2008), Canberra Knights and Sydney Bears. Ice hockey in Western Sydney goes back to 1981, when the Blacktown Flyers were a foundation member of the New South Wales Superleague. While lasting for thirteen seasons, this league struggled to gain stability and folded, to be reborn in 1994 as the ECSL, however it too would be disbanded in 2000 with Western Sydney having no representative in the newly formed AIHL. The region returned to the national ice hockey map in 2002 when the Ice Dogs joined the AIHL. John Wilson, owner of the Blacktown Ice arena funded the team and Anthony Wilson (his son) captained, managed and recruited for the team. The teams' first season was a success despite missing the semi-finals, finishing third out of six teams. It was not enough to make the finals, however, with a four-team playoff series would not be introduced until the 2003 season. The Ice Dogs finished third in 2003 as well, but made the final after defeating the second-placed Adelaide Avalanche to reach the Goodall Cup final in 2003, before losing the championship game 4-1 to Newcastle. They would have their revenge in 2004, as both teams again squared off for the Cup and the Ice Dogs won 3-1. The 18-year-old goaltender Gabriel Robledo was instrumental in Ice Dogs Finals win. A healthy rivalry between the Ice Dogs and the North Stars arose from these two championship games. 2 star imports that season was John Heinen and Martin Jesko. At the start of the 2009 season the team was renamed to "Sydney Ice Dogs", dropping the Western part of the title. This also coincided with the complete redesign and re-launch of their website early in the 2009 season. Updated news and feature articles were a regular offering via the dedicated blog named, "Give a Dog a Blog". In 2010, the website promises of a new section for video highlights of home games tentatively named 'Ice Dogs TV'. On 24 April 2014 the Sydney Ice Dogs head coach Ron Kuprowsky and his assistants Colin Downie and Brad Andrlon had resigned from their positions. The club appointed Dion Dunwoodie as interim head coach with Mark Page and Anthony Wilson as his assistants. On 9 May 2014 the Ice Dogs signed Andrew Petrie as their new head coach. Season by season results :1 As of the 2006 AIHL season, all games will have a winner. :2 OTW and OTL include shootout wins and shootout losses respectively. :3 One of these losses was a double points game which would give the total of seven games played. :4 The Ice Dogs were fined three competition points for multiple breaches by-law 4 which requires teams to travel with at least 15 players unless an exemption has been granted. Championships :Goodall Cup: 2004, 2013 References External links *Official website *Australian Ice Hockey League Category:Ice hockey teams in Australia